Google is experimenting with yet another new search feature called Google Preferred Sites. If you’re one of the lucky few to have this option show up in your search preferences you can start taking advantage of this feature right now, but most of you will probably have to wait for Google to roll it out.
How it works is when you’re logged in with your Google account you can specify your favorite domains, which will then take precedence when performing searches on Google. It’s basically a way for you to have the sites you trust the most towards the top of your search results.
I actually can’t wait to get this feature. It says that the service will also be able to recommend links to be added by scanning through your Google Search History (if enabled). The only thing it sounds like it’s missing is the ability to block domains all together. Their SearchWiki will let you block specific results, but not entire domains.
What do you think? Is this something that you’d actually find useful?
I really don’t like the idea of personalized Google search. I like the algorithm like it is now. I’d rather have the ability to save a bookmark from the search field.
This could be very useful in my Google News searches…at the moment when I do a search in my local Google News I tend to see a lot of results from news sources all around the world…I’d like to be able to specify a preference from news sources in my home country, especially from certain quality newspapers.
I would say it’s a good way to guarantee that the displayed results are from Web sites that you trust. It will weed out a lot of irrelevant results and save valuable time. I like it.
Hmm.. I had access to this at work but it seems to have removed the SearchWiki option. At home it’s the other way around. I think I prefer this new option, since the SearchWiki doesn’t seem to generate a lot of useful results (as I hardly search for the same thing twice).
Seems like it’s worth a try. There’s some sites I hate getting results from, like that stupid tech site that wants you to pay for a membership to see tech solutions/fixes. As if…
Yeah, good example. I’m using the Fx CustomizeGoogle add-on to filter that one out. Unfortunately the filter function doesn’t work with SearchWiki enabled, but it does with the above new function enabled.
I definitely think this concept is a lot better than the SearchWiki since, as you mentioned, it will affect all your searches.
If you’re talking about Experts Exchange did you realize that you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see the answers. They make it look like the solutions are hidden, but they really aren’t. It’s annoying to have to scroll that far, but it works. A lot of people think you have to view the Google Cache in order to see these solutions, but they are there on the non-cached page as well. Just make sure you scroll down far enough to see them.
Huh? Are you sure you’re not logged in or something? I’ve just double checked and I don’t see the answers, even when scrolling. Example URL:
[experts-exchange.com]
Weird! It doesn’t work when you go directly to the article, but if you’re coming from Google you can see the answers. I did a Google Search for the article title, clicked on the first result, and I could see the solutions down at the bottom:
[google.com]+uninstall+Norton+Internet+Security+2008%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
I’m not sure if they are reading the referring site, and if you’re coming from Google showing you the solutions? Are you blocking the referrer information? Here’s a screenshot of what I see for the solutions after scrolling past the categories:
[img214.imageshack.us]
And no, I’ve never registered for an account.
Hmm that’s odd. I always open links from the Google results page by dragging them (using DragToGo add-on). This means no referrer is known to the sites being opened. When I click directly on the link in Google it does work fine indeed! Wonder what the reasoning is behind this policy…